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10,000 students to take part in Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad

PUNE: Close to 10,000 students from 450 higher education institutions across the country are expected to participate in the fourth Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad (Indian student parliament), which will begin from January 10 at the MIT School of Government (MITSOG) in the city.

The three-day annual youth convention will feature talks by eminent personalities from different walks of life, either in person or through video-conferencing. It aims at sensitising the youth and promoting the cause of nation building among them.

It also features multiple plenary sessions on dedicated themes, in which selected students will express their views. At the end of each session, a resolution will be passed by way of an electronic voting process. A document of resolutions will be forwarded to the Union government.

Group Captain (Retd) D P Apte, MITSOG director, told TOI on Wednesday, "There is a strong possibility this year that Pakistan's young education and women's activist Malala Yousafzai, Nobel laureate and Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Hollywood actor Daniel Radcliffe will attend the Sansad ...They have shown willingness to attend the event. The final details are being worked out." Other eminent speakers scheduled to address students include lyricist Javed Akhtar, environmentalist Sunita Narain, UN envoy on youth Ahmad Alhindawi, trap shooter Ranjan Sodhi and scientist Raghunath Mashelkar.

Union minister of state for youth affairs and sports Jitendra Singh, Maharashtra minister for higher education Rajesh Tope and state minister for sports Padmakar Valvi will be prominent guests at the inaugural function at 12.30 pm on January 10, Apte added. The students' convention has been conceptualised and convened by MITSOG head Rahul V Karad.